The Contribution of CoVID-19 Innovative Projects for Sustainable Development: The Portuguese Context

COVID-19 has brought new challenges to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals as proposed by the United Nations in the 2030 Agenda. However, innovative projects developed by governments, private sector, and civil society present themselves as an opportunity to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on sustainable development. This study uses the Observatory of Public Sector Innovation promoted by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development to explore how innovative projects address the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The Portuguese context is used to qualitatively characterize this phenomenon. The findings reveal that these projects also offer relevant contributions in areas such as public infrastructure support, health promotion, quality of education, and reduced inequalities. Copyright © 2022, IGI Global.

A Bibliometric Analysis of the Scientific Outcomes of European Projects on the Digital Transformation of SMEs

The projects funded under the European Horizon 2020 program have responded to the challenges facing small enterprises and have provided a framework for different actors (e.g., universities, R&D centers, SMEs) to collaborate and find innovative approaches to address the challenges of digital transformation. This study conducts a bibliometric analysis of the scientific production supported by this project, between 2014 and 2021, evaluating 114 projects, which have associated 2312 scientific production items and 1460 deliverables. The results demonstrate that scientific production is mostly carried out collaboratively with project partners and is mainly published in peer-reviewed journals. The research demonstrates that resources, such as Horizon 2020, provide a useful adjunct to other databases as a basis for bibliometric and related analyses.

Caracterizacao Sorologica E Molecular Em Amostra De Paciente Com Ausencia De Dois Antigenos De Alta Frequencia De Diferentes Grupos Sanguineos

Objetivo: Relatar um caso imunohematologico complexo, descrevendo as estrategias sorologicas e moleculares realizadas para a caracterizacao fenotipica de um paciente com ausencia de dois antigenos de alta frequencia U (MNS:-5) e Yta (YT:-1), assim como, a determinacao do(s) anticorpo(s) de alta frequencia presente no soro. Materiais e metodos: Trata-se de um trabalho descritivo em que foram utilizados dados clinicos de prontuario disponiveis no laboratorio de referencia de imunohematologia (LRI) onde foram testadas as amostras. Resultados: Paciente de 84 anos, com anemia sintomatica, COVID-19 e abdomen agudo obstrutivo, teve a amostra encaminhada para o LRI para confirmacao de anticorpo anti-U no soro e genotipagem eritrocitaria. O soro do paciente foi testado com painel de hemacias comerciais e raras sendo reativo com todas as hemacias do painel em Gel-Liss/Enzima, exceto com hemacias S-s-U-/Yt(a+) demonstrando apenas a especificidade de anti-U. O teste de adsorcao alogenica com hemacias de doador tratadas com ZZAP excluiu a presenca de anticorpo anti-Yta no soro aloadsorvido. Para avaliar a importancia clinica do anticorpo, foi realizada a tecnica de MMA (Monocyte Monolayer Assay), sendo que o teste apresentou menos que 5% de atividade fagocitica dos Monocitos, alem disso, o fato da classe da Imunoglobulina nao pertencer a IgG1 ou IgG3 (cartao ID-Card DAT IgG1/IgG3, BioRad), indicaram que esse anticorpo nao possui importancia clinica. O DNA do paciente foi extraido do sangue total utilizando o Kit MagNa Pure, Roche. A genotipagem realizada pelas tecnicas do BloodChip Kit ID CoreXT - Grifol, PCR-SSP e PCR-RFLP demonstrou o seguinte resultado: GYPB*delecao;YT*2/2. O fenotipo foi confirmado como U- e Yt(a-) com antissoros provenientes do SCARF. Discussao: Antigenos de alta frequencia quando ausentes, resultam na dificuldade da busca de sangue compativel para a transfusao, assim como na disponibilidade de insumos e tecnicas bem padronizadas para a investigacao imunohematologica. Determinados antigenos de alta frequencia quando ausentes na membrana eritrocitaria podem afetar a expressao de antigenos de outros sistemas. Atraves de uma tecnica semi-automatizada de genotipagem identificamos que a amostra de um paciente tinha a ausencia de dois antigenos de alta frequencia U (MNS:-5) e Yta(YT:-1). Por se tratar de um caso complexo, estrategias sorologicas e moleculares foram realizadas para a caracterizacao fenotipica do paciente, determinacao do anticorpo de alta frequencia presente no soro e sua importancia clinica. Conclusao: A tecnica do BloodChip permitiu uma analise molecular mais completa, sendo possivel verificar a ausencia de dois antigenos de alta frequencia: U e Yta, o que tornou mais dificil a busca por doador fenotipo compativel para o paciente. Paineis de hemacias e soros raros foram capazes de definir a especificidade do anti-U e excluir a presenca do anti-Yta e de outros anticorpos que poderiam estar mascarados no soro. Apesar do anti-U nao aparentar importancia clinica, recomendamos a transfusao de concentrado de hemacias U- (MNS:-5), uma vez que esse anticorpo esta implicado em reacoes transfusionais hemoliticas. Copyright © 2022

Analysis of the Quality of Videos on Exercise Training in YouTube during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Short Communication

Gambassi BB, de Melo MHF, Prazeres J, Almeida FJF, Costa CPS, Martins CA, Novais TM, Lauande Oliveira PL, Schwingel PA. Analysis of the Quality of Videos on Exercise Training in YouTube during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Short Communication. JEPonline 2022;25(3):53-59. This study analyzed the quality of YouTube exercise training videos during the COVID-19 pandemic. A video search on the online video hosting platform YouTube was conducted on June 3, 2020. Videos are listed based on view counts, with the most viewed ones on the first page. We selected the ten most viewed videos in Portuguese and English using the keywords: COVID-2019;physical exercise;physical activity;exercise training. The video quality analysis showed that only 15% (n = 3) were in the high-quality group according to the GQS scores, whereas most of them were low-quality. In addition, only 30% (n = 1) of the high-quality videos were guided by a physical education teacher. We further identified the following points: (a) lack of applicability;(b) few details on the control of important exercise training variables;and (c) little scientifically based information. Therefore, the population must seek qualified physical education teachers to promote lifelong physical activity safely. © 2022, Journal of Exercise Physiology Online. All Rights Reserved.

Retail sales forecasting for a Brazilian supermarket chain: An empirical assessment

Time series forecasting is a consolidated, broadly used approach in several fields, such as finance and industry. Retail can also benefit from forecasting in many areas such as stock demand, price optimization, and sales. This study addresses retail sales forecasting in Nordestão, a large Brazilian supermarket chain that respectively ranks 3rd and 27th in sales regionally and nationally. The data considered spans five years of daily transactions from eight different stores. Knowingly effective machine learning techniques for forecasting are adopted, namely linear regression, random forests, and XGBoost. We further improve their performance with features we engineer to address seasonal effects. The best algorithm varies per store, but for most stores at least one of the methods proves effective. Importantly, the models display effective performance across multiple testing weeks, and improve over the current approach of Nordestão by a significant margin. Besides the traditional relevance of sales forecasting, our work is a means for Nordestão to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemics on sales. © 2022 IEEE.

The Role of Data-Driven Solutions for SMES in Responding to COVID-19

This study aims to explore the role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing data-driven solutions to address the direct and indirect challenges posed by COVID-19. A sample of six case studies of SMEs from the UK and Portugal were selected to explore in-depth the experience of these companies in proposing innovative solutions in the pandemic context. The findings reveal that the pandemic caused amplifying effects on the digitalization of organizations and the emergence of data-driven solutions. However, the development of a data-driven approach involves not only technologies but also the digitalization of processes and highly skilled human resources. The pandemic was also a catalyst for the emergence of collaborative initiatives that have enabled the development of solutions involving diverse players from science, business, and civilian society. This study offers innovative contributions by focusing exclusively on companies developing data-driven solutions supported by technologies such as the internet of things (IoT), big data, and artificial intelligence.

Defining and Measuring Health System Pressure: A Conceptual Framework and Application to RSV and C. Difficile Infections

Objectives: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the potential for vaccines to reduce pressure on health care systems has received much attention. However, evaluation of how vaccination may impact health system pressure is hindered by lack of a formal definition and measurement framework. We developed an approach for defining health system pressure and measuring its impact in healthcare settings and applied this approach to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) infections. Methods: We conducted a targeted literature review and assessed hospital guidelines for prevention and control of RSV and C. difficile infections in hospital settings in Germany, Italy, and the UK. The definition and framework were tested via semi-structured interviews among healthcare professionals. Results: Health system pressure can be generally defined as resource utilisation given a pre-set usable capacity. Its impact can be measured as the opportunity cost of actions taken to prevent or mitigate pressure. Actions to prevent or mitigate pressure due to RSV or C difficile can be classified by their impact on staff (labour resources), stuff (non-labour resources and materials), and structure capacity. Increased staffing needs drive RSV pressure during the RSV respiratory season and are considered to be extremely likely and extremely costly by 75% of the interviewees. C. difficile pressure is driven by the activation of outbreak-induced infection control protocols, which are likely to affect every capacity dimensions according to over 60% of the interviewees, and lead to large costs of infrastructure needed to isolate patients. In general, actions to mitigate pressure are associated with higher costs than actions used to prevent pressure before it occurs. Conclusions: This research describes a novel definition and framework for health system pressure. Further development and application of this framework may enable HTA bodies to describe and measure the potential impact of vaccination on health care systems.

Total Quality Management: Practices to Leverage Its Principles in Distance Higher Education

The growth of distance learning in higher education has been gaining market share. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced this trend. Enrollments are increasing sharply while fierce competition is a threat to distance learning institutions. To conquer and retain distance learning students, it is necessary to offer quality services and products, seeking innovation and continuous improvement to meet their needs. However, studies that analyze the application of the principles and practices of TQM (Total Quality Management) in distance higher education are still scarce. From this perspective, this study seeks to identify practices that increase the presence of TQM principles in distance higher education institutions. The qualitative research was carried out with managers from 64 teaching centers of one of the largest distance learning institutions in Brazil. The pillars of TQM considered in this study are leadership, staff, students, technological resources and continuous improvement. This study contributed to the literature by identifying practices to expand the presence of TQM principles in distance higher education adopted by the studied institution and its teaching centers. Management contributions are also presented. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Social movements in a time of pandemic: The case of Tech4Covid19 in Portugal

The COVID-19 pandemic had a strong impact on Portuguese society and raised the need for new technological projects to help frontline professionals in the fight against coronavirus and its effects on the local population and economic agents. It is in this context that the Tech4Covid19 movement was founded by Portuguese technological startups. This initiative brings together more than 5000 volunteers and offers technological solutions in the areas of health, education, and local economy. This study aims to understand and explore the organizational model and dynamics of Tech4Covid19 through the adoption of qualitative methods based on primary and secondary sources that have allowed the movement to be explored from multiple perspectives. The findings reveal that Tech4Covid internally promotes the development of its own projects, but also accepts projects proposed by external entities that are aligned with the principles and values of the movement. The organization of the movement is supported by autonomous self-managed teams regarding each project, and there is a coordination group responsible for the aggregate management of the various initiatives and for establishing communication with partners, the media, and social networks. © Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

Open Data's Role in Social Innovation Initiatives to Fight COVID-19

Purpose: This study aims to explore the role open data assumes in social innovation initiatives that combat the effects of Covid-19, in which quantitative information about these projects is complemented with the analysis of open data innovation capabilities. Methodology: A mixed methods approach is adopted. Initially, quantitative data regarding the number of innovative projects is extracted from the OPSI framework. Then, in a second phase, qualitative data from each project is explored to explore the open data innovation capabilities offered by each initiative. Results: The results reveal that most social innovation initiatives focus on the area of data visualization dashboards and open datasets. However, some projects address other areas, e.g. hackathons, service availability, and tourism information. Implications: Covid-19 profoundly affects the lives of people and businesses, and open data can assume a determinant role in mitigating these effects and improve information transparency and collaboration between public and private entities. Originality/Value: This study is relevant for the establishment of supportive public policies that promote the emergence of open-data-driven initiatives to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 in several areas such as the economy, education, and leisure.

Standard and Anomalous Waves of COVID-19: A Multiple-Wave Growth Model for Epidemics

We apply a generalized logistic growth model, with time-dependent parameters, to describe the fatality curves of the COVID-19 disease for several countries that exhibit multiple waves of infections. In the case of two waves only, the model parameters vary as a function of time according to a logistic function, whose two extreme values, i.e., for early and late times, characterize the first and second waves, respectively. For the multiple-wave model, the time-dependency of the parameters is likewise described by a multi-step logistic function with N intermediate plateaus, representing the N waves of the epidemic. We show that the theoretical curves are in excellent agreement with the empirical data for all countries considered here, namely: Brazil, Canada, Germany, Iran, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Sweden, and the USA. The model also allows for predictions about the time of occurrence and severity of the subsequent waves. It is shown furthermore that the subsequent waves of COVID-19 can be generically classified into two main types, namely, standard and anomalous waves, according as to whether a given wave starts well after or well before the preceding one has subsided, respectively. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Sociedade Brasileira de Física.

GRUPO ABO E A SUSCETIBILIDADE A INFECÇÃO POR SARS-COV-2: UMA REVISÃO DE LITERATURA

Objetivo: O presente estudo buscou analisar a suscetibilidade pela infecção por SARS-CoV-2 entre a tipagem sanguínea com base em estudos publicados. Introdução: O SARS-CoV-2 é um vírus pertencente à família dos Coronaviridae, tendo o RNA como seu material genético, que leva ao desenvolvimento da doença COVID-19. O novo coronavírus foi detectado pela primeira vez em dezembro de 2019 na cidade de Wuhan, China, tornando-se uma pandemia acometendo até agosto de 2020, 215 países. Neste sentido, a busca por entender os mecanismos e/ou suscetibilidade frente a infecção por este vírus, se tornou prioridade entre os pesquisadores do mundo, sugerindo então uma correlação entre o sistema ABO frente a infecção por SARS-CoV-2. Metodologia: Foi realizada uma revisão da literatura com base em artigos indexados nas plataformas: Pubmed e medRxiv, no ano de 2020. Ao final da aplicação dos critérios de exclusão para seleção dos artigos, foram selecionados 17 estudos. Resultados e discussões: Mesmo com a escassez de estudos, o que é justificável por se tratar de um novo vírus, as pesquisas apontam que o tipo A é o mais susceptível e o grupo O menos susceptível, todavia, a gravidade quanto ao risco de óbito está associado ao tipo AB. Até o presente momento não se sabe ao certo o porquê o SARS-CoV-2 é menos susceptível ao grupo O. Hipotetiza-se que o anti-A desse grupo é capaz de interferir na ligação entre a proteína Spike com o receptor da enzima conversora angiotensina 2 (ACE2), mecanismo este visto na infecção por SARS-CoV-1. Outro fato que pode ser considerado é em relação a neutralização que os anticorpos anti-A e/ou anti-B podem exercer em infecções virais semelhantemente visto nas infecções por HIV, que poderia neutralizar também o SARS-CoV-2. Conclusão: Em suma, nota-se que o tipo sanguíneo O apresenta uma menor suscetibilidade diante a infecção pelo novo coronavírus, porém, não há nenhum estudo que elucide de qual forma o SARS-CoV-2 se porta diante o grupo ABO, fazendo então a necessidade de pesquisas para esclarecer este processo.

Think up to teach well: Instructional design for remote learning

The pandemic caused by the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) imposed a worldwide scenario of social isolation and suspension of face-to-face teaching activities at all levels of education. It has forced the emergency adoption of remote teaching strategies to maintain the continuity of the didactic activities, even though in a limited way. On the other hand, most teachers, at all levels of education, had barely or no knowledge and experience with remote teaching. Although the educational institutions offered support, to some degree or another, it was up to individual teachers to do most of theirselves training, prepare, and deliver their subjects. Also, many courses were migrated to the virtual learning environment without the proper adaptations, which may result in worse learning outcomes. Although there are different methodologies for planning and implementing e-learning, the ADDIE model is largely popular and relatively simple to implement, and for this reason, it was chosen for the development of this article. Thus, we present the steps of analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation of a remote course. Additionally, we include practical elements such as an indication of equipment, software, links, and suggestions to accomplish these steps.

Project based learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: Experiment reports of initiatives in computer engineering

The COVID-19 pandemic caused profound impacts arising from a traditional on-site teaching model rupture and demanded distance learning for Engineering students, who faced additional challenges and opportunities for practical activities with physical components such as Internet of Things projects. As an alternative to standardized synchronous tests, Project Based Learning (PBL) was employed in this context to engage students in the social distancing context. This paper presents experiment reports of PBL application for the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo’s Computer Engineering curriculum in 2020: two undergraduate courses (third year’s Digital Laboratory II, fifth year’s Laboratory of Software Engineering II), scientific initiation (short-term research project of smart meter for third year student), and capstone project (one year project fifth year student regarding smart home monitoring). In all courses, at least a Master of Science student acted as co-advisor or graduate teaching assistant. When combined with remote labs, home labs and virtual labs, PBL could engage students and make practical activities happen during the pandemic. The students took an active part in the projects, working with stakeholders and raising demands for tools usage. © 2021 University of Minho. All rights reserved.

Mental health innovative solutions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose This study aims to explore worldwide innovative solutions that have been proposed to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on people's mental health. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative methodology is adopted, which performs an exploratory study considering the innovative projects identified by the Observatory for Public Sector Innovation framework. Additionally, the analysis of the relevance and characteristics of these projects are explored considering a multidimensional framework composed of five dimensions: novelty level;social need;improvement of society;sector neutrality;and level of emergence. Findings The findings reveal that the number of projects in the field of mental health is low, despite their strong relevance to their communities. These projects arise from a strong social need to protect especially the most vulnerable groups in this pandemic and involve a large number of partners in the public sector, business and civil society. The role of volunteering in the revitalization and growth of these initiatives is also recognized. Originality/value This study is relevant in both the theoretical and practical dimensions. It allows the exploration of these projects considering the dimensions of social innovation and offers practical implications that allow these projects to be replicated in other countries and regions.

ÓLEO E FARINHA DE ALGODÃO: UM ESTUDO BIBLIOMÉTRICO COVID-19

According to data from the Brazilian Association of Cotton Producers, Brazil occupies 4th place in the ranking of cotton production according to the 18/19 harvest. Because of this importance, this review aimed to carry out a bibliometric survey on cotton oil and flour and their applications. The results showed that there were a total of 1525 research and reviews articles in the Scopus and Web of Science databases in the last three decades, and, based on the entire analysis, it was noticed that the studies of the last three decades are focused on separation area and biofuels, as well as that the Republic of China stands out among the most cited countries besides its universities. According to these results, it can be concluded that the Republic of China has a lot of influence in studies with cotton and more research is needed to use cotton and its derivatives in the food industry. Bibliometric analysis, Biofuels, Gossypium hirsutum L., VOSviewer 1INTRODUÇAO O algodao (Gossypium hirsutum L.) pertence a família das malváceas e é umas das fibras mais conhecidas no mundo.

Explainable Sentiment Analysis Application for Social Media Crisis Management in Retail

Sentiment Analysis techniques enable the automatic extraction of sentiment in social media data, including popular platforms as Twitter. For retailers and marketing analysts, such methods can support the understanding of customers' attitudes towards brands, especially to handle crises that cause behavioural changes in customers, including the COVID-19 pandemic. However, with the increasing adoption of black-box machine learning-based techniques, transparency becomes a need for those stakeholders to understand why a given sentiment is predicted, which is rarely explored for retailers facing social media crises. This study develops an Explainable Sentiment Analysis (XSA) application for Twitter data, and proposes research propositions focused on evaluating such application in a hypothetical crisis management scenario. Particularly, we evaluate, through discussions and a simulated user experiment, the XSA support for understanding customer's needs, as well as if marketing analysts would trust such an application for their decision-making processes. Results illustrate the XSA application can be effective in providing the most important words addressing customers sentiment out of individual tweets, as well as the potential to foster analysts' confidence in such support. Copyright © 2020 by SCITEPRESS-Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved.

Exploring the role of organisational innovation in the time of COVID-19

COVID-19 has caused profound impacts on the economy and society. In Portugal, many companies needed to temporarily close, and many workers were forced to go into lay-off. However, at the same time, several companies are trying to respond to the challenges posed by this pandemic by introducing organisational innovations that would enable them to respond to the needs of the people and organisations that most require help during this period. In this sense, this study aims to explore the role of organisational innovation in the business sector in Portugal through seven case studies. The findings reveal a very diverse set of initiatives in which the role of internal and external sources of innovation stands out simultaneously. Most of the innovations identified have a procedural focus, while structural innovations have less influence. This study is particularly relevant in the practical dimension by encouraging other countries and companies to replicate these initiatives. Copyright © 2021 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Innovative response initiatives in the European Union to mitigate the effects of COVID-19

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the European Union (EU) through heavy pressure on health services, business activity and people's life. To mitigate these effects, government agencies, civil society and the private sector are working together in proposing innovative initiatives. In this sense, this study aims to characterize and explore the relevance of these projects to mitigate the effects of COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach: The Observatory of Public Sector Innovation provided by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development was considered to enable the identification and exploration of innovative projects to combat COVID-19. A methodology based on mixed methods is adopted to initially identify quantitatively the distribution of these projects, followed by a qualitative approach based on thematic analysis that allows exploring their relevance. Findings: A total of 206 initiatives in the EU have been identified. The distribution of these projects is quite asymmetric, with Portugal and Austria totaling 33.52% of these projects. Most of these projects focus on the areas of public health, infection detection and control, virtual education, local commerce, digital services literacy, volunteering and solidarity and hackathons. Originality/value: This work is relevant to identifying and understanding the various areas in which COVID-19 initiatives have been developed. This information is of great relevance for the actors involved in this process to be able to replicate these initiatives in their national, regional and local contexts. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON TOURISM SUSTAINABILITY: EVIDENCE FROM PORTUGAL

Portugal is a country in which the tourism sector assumes great importance, contributing around 15% of the national GDP and with more than 1 million jobs. In this sense, COVID-19 is expected to have a dramatic impact on the Portuguese economy aggravated by the existence of a reduced internal market with low purchasing power and in which there is a high dependence on the external market. This perspective study explores the challenges and opportunities that Portuguese companies in the field of tourism are facing due to the emergence of this pandemic. The challenges faced by companies are both short-term and long-term. In the short term, it is essential to ensure sufficient liquidity to reopen activities and in the long term, it is necessary to be prepared and reactive to disruptive movements that may arise in tourist demand. However, it is also important to recognize that some opportunities can be exploited, such as the quality of the health response, the exploitation of a less mass tourism supply based on the components of social and environmental sustainability, the increase of tourism among the elderly population from countries with greater purchasing power and the acceleration of the digitalization of tourism operations.